Dusting off my Soap Box...

A recent encounter has made me think a lot about how I live my life in relation to the needs of others. I think of myself as a selfless person and I do a lot to volunteer and reach out to the community. However another encounter with Janice made me take a step back and make a true evaluation of how I really live. Spending all my money on new gadgets while people all around me are struggling to survive doesn't seem to mesh with the views I hold.

Janice is an old black woman who works part time at Fuzzy's Taco Shop. She doesn't have any way to get from her "home" to work and back again yet she lives miles away. She also has AIDS and has so many sores on her body that she can barely walk see Janice about once a week late on Wednesday nights after I get out of church. She's always smiling and has never asked me for money, just a ride across town.

I don't have any grand ideas for stopping poverty or hunger or AIDS for that matter but I just think that we should all take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Focus on more than our own lives and what we're going through and help those around us in hopes that someday when we're down on our luck in some fashion that someone might stop to help us.